Turkey and Iraq signed more than 20 agreements during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s first visit to the neighbouring country in more than a decade. In statements after the visit, attention focused on the ambitious Development Road project, a highway and railway corridor stretching 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) from the Persian Gulf city of Basra to the Turkish port of Mersin. Dubbed the ‘new Silk Road’, this $17 billion project is poised to rival both China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor – neither of which traverses through Iraq. By subst…